The state visit of Prime Minister Singh of India, which will start next week, underscores the fact that no American president has done more to strengthen relations with India than George W. Bush.

He has recognized the market potential of the world’s biggest democracy. He has seen the value of India as part of a new strategic alliance in Asia to counter China’s growing economic and political clout. He has cannily calculated that in 20 years, India’s economy may be as strong as that of America – and that American self-interest suggests that bridge building between the two countries should be accelerated.

India represents quite possibly the most significant foreign-policy success of the Bush presidency.

Mr. Bush’s embrace of this rapidly modernizing nation of 1.1 billion people has boosted bilateral trade to a record, nearly $25 billion in 2004. It has resulted in regular joint exercises by the armed forces of both countries, and a new 10-year defense pact that was signed last week, enabling American weapons to be produced in India. It has speeded technology transfers. Mr. Bush’s positive view of India has opened up new investment opportunities for American companies that, not so long ago, despaired of cracking a middle-class market that is, at 400 million, the world’s largest.

Mr. Bush is popular in India. Indians can identify with Mr. Bush’s sunny disposition, even if, at the same time, some in the intelligentsia question his Iraq expedition and commitment to combating an Islamic terrorism that Indians know all too well on account of several historical insurgencies such as in Kashmir and Punjab states.

As India’s economy gathers steam – last year it grew at a remarkable 6.2% – more jobs and purchasing power are being created for everyday people. Indians covet the consumer goods that American companies are increasingly supplying. That those companies are able to do so is largely because of the premier who will be visiting next week. Manmohan Singh is a slight, mild-mannered Sikh, who, when he served as finance minister in an earlier administration, began untangling a system of licenses and permits that hampered industrial growth and discouraged foreign investors.

Those investors are looking afresh at India, whose left-leaning governance had long been viewed with wariness by policy-makers in Washington. American presidents were distrustful of the favoritism toward the erstwhile Soviet Union shown by such icons such as Prime Minister Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who also served as prime minister until her assassination in 1984.

Mr. Singh is now India’s prime minister, and next week he’s coming to Washington at President Bush’s invitation. The visit, which includes an address before a joint session of Congress by Mr. Singh, is Mr. Singh’s first state visit to America since his Indian National Congress succeeded in cobbling together a coalition of 14 parties and groupings. Mr. Bush has agreed to go to India toward the end of the year, making that his first trip to the subcontinent.

More than a dozen Americans of Indian origin serve in high positions in the Bush administration, reflecting the growing influence of the Indian-American community in America, now believed to be 2.5 million. An Indian, Bobby Jindal, Republican of Louisiana, is a member of the House of Representatives. Mr. Bush is certain to say that Indians are no longer just physicians, engineers, and computer whizzes; they have reached the upper echelons of policy making in America.

What he’s unlikely to say – but no doubt appreciates – is the fact that Indians have been among Mr. Bush’s biggest campaign contributors since he first ran for governor of Texas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Indians now have the highest average annual income of any ethnic group – more than $75,000. They are not only entrepreneurs but also top executives at major American corporations. They are voters and, mostly, Republicans.

For all the symbolism, substantive discussions lie ahead. India is annoyed that Washington is supplying Pakistan a new contingent of sophisticated F-16 fighter jets. It is perturbed that many American policy-makers still push the concept of parity between India, whose gross domestic product is $650 billion, and Pakistan, whose GDP is barely a sixth of that. New Delhi is irritated that America is still hesitant about transferring nuclear know-how for civilian use on the grounds that India, which already possesses nuclear weapons, may use that technology for less-than-peaceful purposes.

India is also irritated that American investment in India is still little more than a trickle – barely 50% of the $4 billion foreign direct investment that India receives each year. In contrast, three-fifths of the $54 billion that China receives in FDI is from American sources.

Mr. Bush may or may not say it, but the main barriers to more American investment in largely English-speaking India are its relatively poor infrastructure and its extensive corruption. The outsourcing of some 100,000 jobs to India by American companies is starting to become a political issue for Mr. Bush.

And many American policy makers question the durability of the Singh government, whose survival depends on the parliamentary support of India’s two Communist parties, which vehemently oppose any American involvement in India’s economy. Whatever is said or not said between Messrs. Bush and Singh, the fact that they will know what’s on each other’s mind will augur well for bilateral relations between America and India.